With a long list of built-in features and access to thousands of apps available to streamline your workday, an iPhone makes an effective pocket-sized mobile business station. In addition to sending email, managing office documents and holding Web conferences, you can use the device to access important messages that can only be delivered via fax and then print them to a local printer using AirPrint. With these capabilities, your iPhone and a fax service or app bring portability to a once landline-based technology and eliminate the need for a separate fax machine.

How It Works

With a Web-enabled fax service, you can send documents such as PDFs and DOCs that are either created on or scanned into a computer. Similar to uploading and sending an attachment, the technology connects with your recipient by way of the fax number. On the flipside, an Internet fax number gives you access to your incoming faxes as they come in as email attachments. People send to your fax number, which is then forwarded as an email, or you use the viewer on the service's website or mobile app.

Viewing the Faxes

Some electronic faxing services -- such as MyFax, for example -- send incoming faxes as email attachments that you can access and view directly in the native Mail app on your iPhone. With iFax and a flat monthly fee, you are assigned your own fax number at which you can receive an unlimited number of incoming faxes that you can then view onscreen or send, using AirPrint, to a local printer. To facilitate both, try the eFax app, which establishes you with a fax number and viewer like iFax and sends your incoming faxes to your email like MyFax.

Send Faxes to Print

With AirPrint technology built into your iPhone, printing faxes -- as well as any other files or Web page viewed on the device -- requires the installation of third-party software support only if your printer is not AirPrint-enabled. You can determine if your printer is AirPrint-enabled by looking for an AirPrint icon on the unit or the original packaging. Apple also provides an updated list of AirPrint-enabled printers currently on the market on its AirPrint Basics page.

AirPrint Emulators

If your printer is not AirPrint-enabled, you can save yourself the cost of a new printer and install an AirPrint driver such Presto for PC or HandyPrint for Mac. After you purchase and install the software, configure it to send documents to any printer connected to the computer where it's installed; it shows up on iOS devices nearby as an available printer.

Using AirPrint

To print a fax, open it on your iPhone using either your Web browser or within a viewer app and tap the "Share" icon. Tap "Print" and select your printer -- or the AirPrint emulator -- from the list of local devices. Determine how many copies of your fax you want the printer to make and then tap "Print" again to send the fax to the printer.

Resources

About the Author

Based in Tampa, Fla., Danielle Fernandez been writing, editing and illustrating all things technology, lifestyle and education since 1999. Her work has appeared in the Tampa Tribune, Working Mother magazine, and a variety of technical publications, including BICSI's "Telecommunications Distribution Methods Manual." Fernandez holds a bachelor's degree in English from the University of South Florida.